The mess of all of it: cooking, raining, and crafting

First, I must say take a minute and enjoy my "daffies". Thee bought them for me. He always thinks of me at the grocery store and must find a bouquet of something for mommy before we can begin our weekly shopping. I never disagree.

Now back to the blog. In my blog naivete, I thought Monday would be a good day to post. I thought there would be a lot to say after a busy weekend. I've changed my mind Monday will be a difficult day to post. I realize I spend the majority of Monday cleaning up the weekend mess, and we are a messy lot. I am the queen of mess. My son is a quick second, and my husband is a mess of his own. We subscribe to three newspapers, and on the weekend, the newspapers seem to mulitply like Tribbles (Star Trek reference). Then there are books: new books, old books, antique books, children's books, coloring books, and cookbooks. You name it there is a book about it in this house. There are bookshelves or piles of books in every room of our three story home, including each bathroom. It seems that on the weekend they all come off the shelves to play. I spend a good part of Monday sorting through all of the weekend's newspapers and salvaging all of the treasures to save, and then reshelving all of the books we have referenced during our weekend of reading.

And then of course there is the craft mess. I'm the crafty one, and now I've gotten my son into the sport. We are always making something. Our next project is to reconstruct the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. We just finished our Doomsday Machine -- this is a intergalactical machine from the Season Two of S.T. that eats starships. We studied pictures of it on the internet and decided that a long rectangular box covered in duct tape, aluminum foil, and a bit of scotch tape with red tissue paper stuffed inside would do the trick -- Knowing what I know about the special effects from the show, our homemade version is probably not far off from the original model. Thee was very happy with our creation, and Daddy thought it was worthy of an email to the William Shatner fan club.

Next, there is the cooking mess. My goal is to cook three meals a day around here, and I always have a helper -- who "helps" with the mess. Sunday's creation was Ratatouille, which involves a medley of: eggplant, red peppers, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, zuchinni, and yellow squash. Up above there is a picture of Thee cutting up the medley on our makeshift washing machine counters from my state-of-the-art kitchen. ***( I have to add here that I am currently typing this with one finger while I hold the doomsday macine with my left arm as an asteroid storm is pelting the entire scene. The odd thing about all of this was I didn't realize I was doing this until the phone rang.)

Anyway, needless to say my life is a mess, but I love it that way. I would much rather be drowning in newspapers, spaceships, coffee cups, crayons, and juiceboxes, than sitting all alone in a perfectly, clean, organized and orderly existence. Well, I guess, we gotta go! Thee is dressed in his new rain boots and ready to get outside and make a mess in the rain puddles!

Today I Begin My Blog

Today, I begin my first blog entry. I've decided to record my musings and the happenings in "my strenuous life" which is a play on the title of Theodore Roosevelt's book, The Strenuous Life. My very own little Theodore, the love of my life, was born three years ago and while I fancy myself creative, and literate, and organized and motivated, I haven't recorded one word about my experience as his mother (my strenuous life). I thought I would be keeping journals and taking pictures and sending out newsletters to all who would read them on every little happening in his existence from the moment he took his first breath; I've done nothing. So here I begin, today the first day of Spring, a fitting day for a new beginning.

And what did we do today to celebrate the first day of Spring? We continued our adventure in potty training. I have to say of all the things that I have neglected to record it is fitting that I should start with the one adventure that has been the most harrowing, considering the name of this blog. At three plus years, he shows no interest in stopping any of his very important activities to sit still on a such a mundane contraption as a potty chair and do his business. He must not be interupted during his day long-torpedo firings and phaser launching from his Star Trek Enterprise contraptions fashioned from Lego's, Tinker toys, or scale model replicas held together with duct tape from so much play. (Yes, it seems to be his first obsession.)

I have read all the books on potty training; I have tried all the tips, hints and suggestions from everyone I talk to. We have run around the house without pants. We have tried the "big boy" underwear. I have bribed him with various special toys -- (all with a Star Trek theme). The bribes seemed to be the most promising strategy until he got tired of waiting for "the urge" and decided to build his own version with whatever he could get his hands on, and soon my bribing device had been forgotten, and he was back to shooting pretend torpedoes. As far as the "big boy pants" and the pantless strategy, let's just say my floors have never been cleaner. Well, I better close this post. I hear the call of my Captain, "Beam me up Scotty!"